tee-hee-hee!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Like them or not, they have it right. Dog and pony shows done by Obama are bullshit, just like they were under Bush.

For real change, we need real leadership. Not a photo-op. It does not have to from the left or right per se, but should come from someone who can fix the problems, not rely on empty slogans of "hope and change" or the mantras that Bush put down.

Essentially, we need new people in office. People who represent us, not corporate interests and ideals. People who respect the Bill of Rights and our sacred institutions of government that we have to establish greater liberty.

Not welfare enablers or parasites that do not pay in, not big-business enablers who fleece us all.

We need Americans who will stand up to the call of civic service with integrity, something that we have not seen in decades.

Hopefully we can save the Constitutional Republic which we all (both left and right) love so dearly.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Nobody gets to the heart of America like Joe. He's my fave.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Or Generalizational Fiction? Doesn't matter.
Somehow, it still makes no mention of Republican responsibility for the limited choices Obama has to make that Right Wingers don't like.
Still, it's a start.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

"It don't matter who gets to warm his butt in the White House chair," says a West Virginia trucker. "The top dogs eat high on the hog and the little dogs eat the tails and ears."

This is the universal refrain of all alienated white guys.

But it just ain't so.

Statistics show very clearly that the poverty rate goes down under Democrats and up under Republicans:

The New Deal lowered the poverty rate from over 50% to around 20%.
Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty reduced the poverty level in the United States to its lowest level ever 11.1 percent in 1973.
Under Bill Clinton, the poverty rate fell from 15.1 percent in 1993 to 12.7 percent in 1998. That was the lowest poverty rate since 1979 and the largest five-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years (1965-1970).
The African-American poverty rate dropped from 33.1 percent in 1993 to 26.1 percent in 1998 -- the lowest level ever recorded and the largest five-year drop in African-American poverty in more than a quarter century (1967-1972).
The poverty rate for Hispanics fell to the lowest level since 1979, and dropped to 25.6 percent in 1998.
African-American unemployment fell from 14.2 percent in 1992 to 7.3 percent in March 2000 -- the lowest rate on record.
The unemployment rate for Hispanics fell from 11.6 percent in 1992 to 6.3 percent in March 2000 -- and in the last year has been at the lowest rate on record.
For women the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in March 2000, nearly the lowest since 1953 [when few women sought employment outside the home].

Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, child poverty declined from 22.7 percent in 1993 to 18.9 percent in 1998 -- the biggest five-year drop in nearly 30 years.
The poverty rate for African-American children fell from 46.1 percent in 1993 to 36.7 percent in 1998 -- the lowest level in 20 years and the biggest five-year drop on record.
The rate also fell for Hispanic children, from 36.8 percent to 34.4 percent - and is now 6.5 percentage points lower than it was in 1993.

Needless to say, the povery rate skyrocketed under Bush II, as it always does under Republicans.

In other words, the difference between the parties is the difference between night and day.

Since this information would make the Democrats look good, the media doesn't report it. That's why truck drivers--along with most Americans--don't know squat about the difference between Democrats and Republicans.


Da Banksta explains everything.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

This sounds like it's right out of the Republican playbook: Portray rednecks as noble savages who are inherently more honest, down-to-earth, and intuitively gifted than all of us fancy-talkin', book-smart Yanks.

It's the same dumb-ass logic that keeps getting us deeper in this mess: Liberals and/or Democrats are overeducated dreamers and phonies who think too much, so we should all vote Republican. That may not be the direct message of the article, but it's the implication that seems to keep putting idiots and fanatics like Reagan and GWB in office.

We assume that men of action are necessarily better than those who talk and make promises they can't keep. But what kind of action are we talking about? Starting wars? Trashing the economy? Spying on people? Torturing people?...If so, I'd prefer folks like Clinton who chase interns all day, or smooth-talking wordsmiths like Obama.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

We get enough of this faux wisdom on Faux News and in the mainstream media. It's usually just another kind of pablum to sweeten the taste of right-wing propaganda.
By the way, the word "redneck" has a reverse-racist ring to it. Not to mention that it's condescending. Better to use the term "moron," which can be applied universally, as in "Morons who agree with good-old-boy wisdom often end up voting for Republicans."

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I was working for him back in Nov. of 1972, when McGovern ran against Nixon. We were taking a coffee break in the kitchen of a house we were painting for some folks in a nice LA neighborhood. Merle said (with feigned enthusiasm) "Well, tomorrow we'll have a new president. And you and me'll be paintin' houses".

I eventually went to school and became a doctor, and now that I've been dealing with insurance companies all my professional life, I'm thinkin' I may have been better off "paintin' houses". At least I got paid for what I did.

As for Obama, I'll be happier when I see more wind mills and feel less hot air.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Man, soup kitchens must have ridiculously tight budgets if they're serving grubs these days...

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I just LOVE the way the "PC"/ "liberal" crowd gnashes their teeth, beats their breasts and whines like stuck pigs every time they perceive racism or bigotry. Yet, these very same "enlightened" folks are about as ignorant and bigoted as it gets when it comes to Southerners or Rednecks...as many of the comments on this article prove. Well, I happen to be both…although "edjermicated" (my gawd!) with degrees from major Damned Yankee universities. I was, also, active in the Civil Rights movement in the '60s and I still have the scars to prove it…literally.

And you know what? After spending nearly 40 of my 62 years living in "enlightened" Damned Yankee cities, like NYC and Boston, I chose to retire way out in the country, in the deep South, surrounded by the same kinds of Rednecks I grew up around…and, for my money, I'll take the average Redneck over ANY of you pompous, condescending Northern snobs. I don't know if Rednecks are "…noble savages…", or not but they sure are a helluva lot more honest and decent than the average loudmouthed, rude Damned Yankee.

And I couldn't ask for better neighbors than the maligned Rednecks that surround me, either!

And: that would be .50 caliber, not .55, Mr. Know-It-All! Any Redneck knows that!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

"Obama has never even come close to serving in the military, except for serving up that batch of hash in Baghdad. And there he was with his wife in a soup kitchen for god sake! Things has got so bad that we've got soup kitchens all over this country now. So, two millionaires in their armored limo drop by a soup kitchen, and this is supposed to make me feel good about my country?"

Every time that people use the military arguments, they seem to forget that the ones who completely and premeditatedly avoided the military during war time! Do we need to remind these folks that Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, et al all got deferments or had their Daddy's money buy them an excuse not to serve? President Obama was not drafted nor was trying to avoid military service. He wasn't being sneaky or underhanded in the least way, ya know, like the war hawks listed here.
I just don't understand how these rednecks don't see this picture. Especially after they praised McCain for his service and totally tried to kill Sen Kerry for his valour.
I guess it takes a redneck or republican, t totally miss the truth.
And......it's good to see that the President and First Lady are not blind to the plight of the working poor and homeless. As for republicans, they always try and tell you how the homeless like being homeless. And rednecks and their ilk always buy this argument. Makes NO sense what-so-ever!!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

for 25 years, I'd like to point out that a real redneck would just as soon shoot you as anything else.

Generally speaking, real rednecks are not the least bit fun, "real" or noble. They are rude, violent types who take pride in being ignorant.

They are arrogant and aggressive. They are blunt, which can be mistaken for honesty but it is not remotely the same thing.

People with "class" may be artificial and pretentious, which is the opposite of rednecks who will blurt out anything on their mind just like a little kid.

I am not the least bit fond of most rednecks. Of course I am not too fond of many people with "class" either. I like being a hermit!
Granny's crazy videos Go get a chuckle!

Luv,
granny

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Please, Alternet.org, no more Joe "I made enough money in the mainstream media that I could retire early to the Central American country of Belize" Bageant and his "Redneck" hokum.

I read his stupid book, "Deer Hunting with Jesus" and learned nothing about lower-middle class white males that I already didn't know from working along side them, as Joe Bageant did not for the majority of his adult life.

For the life of me, I don't understand how Bageant's become the darling of the left. All he is selling is the same anti-big government soft soap that reactionary Republicans have peddled to these mostly white, mostly male, mostly small business owners--remodelers, drywallers, independent carpenters, concrete finishers, insurance agents and owners of tiny stores and junkyards--who blame everything and everybody for their misery except those with whom they most want to identify: the CEOs and boardroom executives of Fortune 500 companies.

The reality is that the small shop owner, the handyman, the junkyard owner and so on who are
making between 100 and 50k or less a year
have more in common with the union guys, who Rush Limbaugh tells them is ruining the country, than a guy like an Edward Liddy, out-going CEO of AIG. But since the Joe Bageant "Rednecks" of the world believe they are getting fucked by the IRS, more tax cuts will solve everything! And maybe even put the n*ggers and women back in their place!

Bottom line, the "rednecks" about whom Joe Bageant writes so lovingly are some of the same stupid motherf*ckers who showed up for the April 15 "teabag parties." I'll bet you a dollar that the morons Bageant quoted in the above essay jack off to visions of Sarah Palin dancing in their tiny heads before they drop off to sleep.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Orphaned at twelve, I was one who rose from poverty to what looked like fulfillment of that "American Dream" about which we all heard so much. Then one day, "democracy" - the kind become robber bands who use politics and legislation instead of guns - simply took it all. No, not all that law provided for - ALL!

There wasn't a scintilla of legality in any of it. IRS doesn't bother with niceties like law - even law like simple fairness. All the government's parasites needed my blood, and if they needed all of it - well, I should just be a good soldier and give his life.

But that's all another story no one wants to hear. "Whining," those of liberal leaning always say. Elsewhere here, I replied to someone who wondered what will happen next. Having lived that for all those who will finance the "bailout" and "affirmative action" for the rich - just another self-serving faction in a deteriorating country, I said:

"Save the constitutional republic . . ." Don't count on it (and it's just good tactics to always have a position to which you can fall back). The shark that was the U.S. collected to many remoras. They've bled him to weakness, and he'll soon die.

We've illegal immigrant-ed, affirmitive action-ed, Title Nine-ed, equal opportunity in housing-ed, and left wing politiced our way to economic and spiritual - fatal - feableness.

As one who saw it coming in a speech I made way back in 1972 - I spoke of the New Feudal Age and the break-up of the U.S. - none of it is a surprise. "Democracy never last long," John Adams said famously (well, that's anywhere that history is studied - certainly not the U.S.). "It always wastes, exhausts, and murders itself."

How's that for being prophetic?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Joe Bageant and his disaffected friends all fail to note that Obama is doing what he's doing in an attempt to dig us out of the deep dark hole that Bush put this country into during his eight year Repulican Reign of Error. No, it isn't pretty and yes, there isn't much for those whose skill set is limited to draining six-packs and grousing about their beer-guts.

Bageant's steady refusal to examine our national situation in a serious way, or to do anything other than rip off a series of salty observations from his fellow rednecks doesn't spark too much sympathy. Why should anyone listen to this drivel? And why does Alternet waste our time with Bageant when we could get the same thing from Limbaugh?

Greenman

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

...does that make me a redneck ? ? ?
1. trying to pin down technical definitions of 'redneck' is silly; there simply ARE quite a few crackers -and some blacks!- who self-identify with the 'redneck lifestyle' and are damn proud of it...
that is MOSTLY slanted towards liking fishin' and huntin' and bbq and beer and babes and country music and dogs and trucks and baseball caps and nascar and plaid and sports and goofin' off...
*not* the more racist, ignorant, violent stereotypes some are trying to portray as being the prevalent brand of redneckism...
having lived in the deep south for a few decades now, having redneck roommates who i went out with muddin' and 4-wheelin' and shootin' over-powered (and illegal) firearms of various calibers, and having been altruistically helped on more than one occasion by an anonymous redneck driving by while i was having vehicle troubles; i would trust your generic 'redneck' over ANY harvard grad, ANY day of the week, and twice on sundays...
2. regardless of one kamper making a technical defense/rebuttal, that 'things' were generally 'better' for po' folks under dem'rat pwesidents than repug pwesidents, is both a relative factoid, and besides the point...
we -the 90% of us at the bottom of the food chain- have been, are being, and will continue to be screwed over by a system that is rigged against us, and to serve the interests of the power elites...
that dem'rats generously let us li'l peeps have 2 cups of cheezy doodles a day, rather than the mean old rethugs letting us have 1 cup of cheezy doodles, is hardly worth jumping up and down about...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I love it when rednecks are described as plain speaking or honest as If being racist, violent, stupid and ignorant makes you honest or plain speaking! Speaking of speaking, having a conversation with "rednecks" is an adventure in honesty, as in, I honestly believe there is no hope for us. That is if you can have a real conversation with someone that knows almost nothing, by design. Why is it that the only way to "serve" involves dressing up and going to some other country and killing people? I am collecting anecdotes. I am not making these up , these are real!
1. We don't have to worry about the environment as god is making us a new planet.
2. We have all the oil we need, we're just saving it for when everyone else has run out.
Surrounded by epsilons?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

What we have now isn't working as it's too watered down. For example, Obama is trying to help the coal states, but in the short run it's painful and they want no part of his plan, so the Congressmen from these states are fighting him and what will end up happening is these states will get a watered-down version of Obama's plan that helps no one, but Obama's and the Congressmen's butts will be covered; "We worked for YOU!" Yeah, right. THe other side of the coin, the "benevolent dictator" obviously does not work either, just look at the fiasco bush created we're tying to dig ourselves out of. Bottom line, if our illustrious American pols fix the country's problems, they're out of a job, so they just ACT like they're fixing them. Pretty simple, isn't it?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

and find them noisy, noxious and over rated. They waste ammunition and are poor marksmen. I give you Dick Cheney without the accent.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

If drywallers are rednecks then I know a few. Not being American I don't know if I could be called a redneck or not white and poor with limitted choices I don't really see the connection to violent or racist but as I said I am not American.
One thing keeps sticking in my mind an article I read by an American Redneck that stated if America has all this money for bailouts where was that money and the will to use it when New Orleans needed bailing out? How is that for a redneck racist comment where does it fit in your culture? For me this is blunt and straight shooting while it may be simplistic compared to how complicated the political system has become it seems to have a heart. Perhaps that is what you are missing in defining a red neck they have hearts I could be completely wrong. Thought I would add some outside thought on how it looks from over here.
This part of your country remains devasted lack of help there speaks volumes to the rest us NON Americans? Americans confuse me and I think Americans are confused as there are many things you say you believe but your actions are the oposite of your belief system and often your laws. You don't make any sense to me. So I guess I likely am a redneck.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Yep;

So why do us Rednecks mostly vote against our own best interests?

People with such a Populist appreciation, how do we Leftists talk to em?

You're right, I identify with both groups; I'm a Liberal Okie!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As a devotee of townhall.com I claim some expertise on the subject of redneck views of Obama. The most charitable townhall townhall post I've seen describes Obama as a happy-go-lucky black buck who just likes to ride around in Air Force One leaving the hard work of governance, which he fails to understand, to his many advisors ("that's why he appointed so many"). That one at least skips the malevolence (Obama planned the financial crisis so he could ruin this country and deliver it to the Muslims; Obama is turning us into a Communist country; Obama will send his Black Militant Thug Corps into your home to confiscate your guns; Obama is a baby-killer; Obama (the Antichrist) can be heard talking to Satan if his speech tapes are played backwards.) Obama and his wife are "minority apes" and Michelle "looks like a gorilla".

This morning posters have extended their wisdom to Sotomayor, suggesting that as a Hispanic woman she would be more wisely employed cleaning toilets. And, this always-reliable opinion, any minority person has succeeded only because of Affirmative Action preferences.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

which said "Rednecks for Obama, Fuck Yeah". I saw it in a photo on the net, but googled for hours and never found one.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

In America, acting stupid so as not to make others feel small is interpreted as showing humility. In actuality it is just being stupid.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

What is the point of this article? It appears that Bageant is an insecure individual who needs to feel superior to others. Not all southerners (as he chose to interview) are rednecks and rascists. Those people exist all across this country. This journalist picked the south to conduct his interviews. Why didn't he interview people from every state? This is biased, bigoted journalism that serves no purpose.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

An obnoxious jerk is an obnoxious jerk regardless of regional accent, educational attainment, or skin tone. Those who come from generations of dirt-poor unfortunates, always looking in from the remote outside, are either good or bad, smart or stupid, kind or cruel as their individual characters dictate. That being said, I think it would be nice if we got back to trying to provide for our citizens with universal health care, safe food, good education for all, a stable economy, and hope for the future, instead of manufacturing "enemies" for us to fear, and continuing to support evil cretins who advocate and profit from endless war.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The man portraying the
personality Larry The
Cable Guy has made millions
off of the negative myths
attributed to rural and
lower income whites.

Just as black people are
insulted by the n word
and asians taking offense
at being called overachievers
people who classify themselves
as rednecks should be offended
by the likes of Larry The Cable
Guy.

(To add further insult to injury,
a recent tour of LTCG charged
20.00 per ticket. Redneck prices?)

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I am a redneck and a cracker. I don't consider those to be bad things. The political, moral, religious and philosophical views of my redneck, cracker family cover a wide range and continuum. We have some very conservative and some pretty liberal family members. We were all taught to think for ourselves and not to trust politicians and people in power. We were also taught that we are all human beings and deserve respect. I think of rednecks as practical people who will help you if you need help and leave you alone and stay out of your business if you want them to.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

compensate for the anti-gun bias, so to show that this site isn't anti-redneck as well?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The term "Redneck" was originally used to describe the Union Mine Workers who were involved in the Matawan Mine riot, takeover, disater, massacre whatever you want to call it.

Anyway the Union miners wore red scarves to identify themselves and hence the term had its birth. It was transmorgrophied into a negative conotation by the mine management, the Army, the Government, and other assorted scum and has stuck to this day.

The original "Rednecks" stood up for the working man and many died for their bravery. Note: many were black, chinese, native american, mulungeon, and of course poor (re: mine worker) white people.

So I would appreciate it if y'all'd just back up off our ass a bit and rethink what a redneck is.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I am a voter who believes that we should all have safety nets and support systems- not just Wall St and the military and health insurance companies and I don't think we will be getting them. I have a global business and when speaking to people all over the world, I find that those who live in a nation where for the most part, they won't be left to die in the gutter, they are very appreciative of this. So I think we need to keep pushing and demanding and not voting for those who only support special interests. Like Baucus in Montana who is against a single payer system. He's all about special interests and does not represent those who voted for him inany way. In 1974 I lived in New York and got 65 weeks of unemployment, I paid 6 dollars for my doctors visit with HIP and had a great CETA job running a reycling center. So there is a lot more Obama could be doing for those who have less and if we don't stay active we will lose everything. I think Obama seduced us all. I shook his hand when he was riding the wave but seeing how little he is doing for us on every front, I am very let down. Being such a rich nation having so many homeless and poor is an outrage and is a product of corruption. We are all getting poorer as things cost more and more and wages don't keep up with the cost of living. We pay $10,000 per yr for health insurance - I would love to have that money for other things, like helping to pay for my daughter's college which is free in many other countries. The bottom line is most of our reps and those in power don't give a damn if we die in the gutter.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Yes, i do agree they have much right, but at the same time they're opinions cannont be commended for they come from hate and bigotry. If they came to these conclusions from meditation and logic not selfishness and doctrine, then there would be open ears and minds to absorb what they have to offer, otherwise we must reject these men and they're opinions because to give them power may make some things better for them, but everything worse for the rest of us.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

the only homosexual you allow under your roof is stuffed and mounted.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Here is an addendum to Mr. Bageant's collection of genuine grassroots/redneck wisdom, a statement that when I lived in rural Washington state, I heard more times than I can count, an aphorism that explains precisely why so many blue-collar Democrats voted for Bush: "if yer a workin man, ain't a damn bit of difference tween the Republicans and the Democrats...scept maybe, just maybe, the Republicans might let us keep our guns."

Rural folks recognize firearms as vital survival tools -- especially in regions where law-enforcement response times can run up to an hour. Firearms are also as much food-harvesting instruments as hoes, tillers and fishing tackle.

Obama carried the blue-collar U.S. in 2008 largely because he managed to suppress the Democratic Party’s fanatical support for forcible disarmament and compulsory pacifism (and thus mandatory victimhood) that characterized the Democrats' 2000 and 2004 campaigns.

Though now -- as Obama methodically betrays nearly every campaign promise stated or implied -- the validity of the Democrats’ reversal on that matter is increasingly in doubt too.

Hence my prediction: that once the Left’s legitimate outrage at Obama’s ongoing betrayals reaches a crescendo of protest, he will unleash H.R. 45 (which Google), thereby imposing New York City-type forcible disarmament on the entire nation.

This -- because HR45 (like the NYC law it mimics) repeals your Second Amendment rights forever if you visit a shrink professionally even once or are ever prescribed psychotropic drugs including anti-depressants, sleep-aids or attention-deficit medications -- will instantly reduce the nation’s legal firearms ownership by at least 60 percent. It will also satisfy the authoritarian pacifists -- by far the dominant faction of the U.S. “Left” -- sufficiently to make Obama again their cult hero just as he was during the election campaign.

As for the rest of us -- organized labor, socialists, left-libertarians -- we will again be as hopelessly isolated (and thus disempowered) as we were by the class-hatreds unleashed by the Vietnam War. Thus will Obama complete his service to his ruling-class masters.

Which will provide the ultimate teachable moment of U.S. history, when we might learn -- if there were anyone to do the teaching -- the bitter truth that makes all such grassroots aphorisms dead right: that whether Democrats or Republicans are in power, the sole purpose of governance at all levels of United States remains exactly the same: the propagation of capitalism -- the absolute protection of the ruling class -- and the total subjugation of all the rest of us.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Uncle Tom Obama told you all, that he was going to increase military spending during his campaign and the those on peace protest lines cheered! WTF?

America is no longer about laws, preserving fairness and human rights. It is about branding, branding of the President, Vice President, Congress and Senate for sale.

I sadly feel American are not going to wake up and take back their country. They didn't even know who was running in the last election! The Democratic Party is just a wing of the Republican greed machine, but the voters were to high on media bullshit to know.

OBAMA will kill American citizens by sending them to die in illegal wars, because it serves the profits of his corporate masters, just like the criminal Bush before him.

Uncle Tom Obama is a real disgrace to those that voted for him, he promised change and gave them more deaths and debts.

The war on terror was a was of terror against the many Americans afflicted by irrational fears. Obama should have been bringing the war criminals of the last administration to justice instead of helping mass-murders like the Cheney-Bush Crime Syndicate escape justice. I am ashamed to be an American.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Oddly enough, I find I agree with all the comments. Rednecks inspire that.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

"It don't matter who gets to warm his butt in the White House chair. The top dogs eat high on the hog and the little dogs eat the tails and ears."

That might be faux folksy wisdom but at the same time it is bloody accurate. I think simplifying the issues is necessary to an extent to carry the message accross. Get bogged down in flowery talk and extensive discussion and the issue will get muddled. The murkier it gets, it is less likely that people will move. Hence the extensive arguments about, for example, the finer points of Obama's bailout. Good luck trying to catch all the threads, just call it garbage that it is and move forth.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

and tell the masses "Vote for the one you think will screw you over the least". Here the leaders of corporate amerika trot out 2 guys, one is branded democrat and the other republican and tells us "Vote for the one you think will screw you over the least". Look at what we have. Had all of us ignored this bullshit and voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 would 9-11 have happened? Probably not. Would amerika be bankrupt now? Definitely not. Everything would be much better, but no, everybody listens to what corporate amerika has to say and believes the fairy tales. I was born here and served my time in Viet Nam but Canada and England look better every day.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

By all means, "sausage," "bonapart," and others - apologies for forgetting your "handle" - publish here anything you find in your careful research that disproves what I have published or written otherwise, what I say, or what I "claim."

Put up or shut up.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Juice up the numbers as much as you want.
Mix in tiny amounts of factual information to make your lies seem credible.
The results speak for themselves.
The economy is doing a slow rise from the depths of Republican hubris and greed and there's nothing you can do about it. Obama's the one pulling it off and that pisses you off because you supported Bush and Cheney for eight years and you want Obama to fail. That way you can say, "See? He's just as bad as they were!" Well, he isn't. Not by a long shot.
The increase in Homeless People nationwide is not only because of the economy, but because Republicans are actually COUNTING them now, instead of IGNORING AND BERATING THEM, because it serves their own ends. Padding numbers and repeating them until your Neck Turns RED doesn't make you less culpable for your endorsement of the criminal administration that set the task before Obama of righting our nation.
Even if he solved the whole f-cked up mess overnight, you'd STILL find a way to turn him into the AntiChrist and blame him for a national emergency he didn't create. If he makes headway, you credit yourselves for "Thwarting His Efforts To Destroy America!" So go ahead, make "ironic" change comments and invoke Dante's Inferno, thinking it makes your thin fiction more ominous and foreboding, when it only makes your commentary appear to be a parody of itself and you, a person who predicts omnipresent storms and hurricanes no matter what the weather prediction. That way when one eventually appears, you can make believe you are endowed with the power of clairvoyance.
Your repressed guilt and anger have made you clueless and shameless.
Stand up and be an American instead of pretending Obama and the rest of aren't.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Feels crappy, right?
To be distilled down to a simple, two dimensional cartoon, your hopes, dreams and feelings no longer apply, because you have been dehumanized.
It's a miniscule percentage of what I've been putting up with on a day to day basis on this site, as of late.
I regret feeling it necessary to use bait to involve someone in debate and perhaps, I used too big a paint brush for so small a detail job.
Nickle and dime "Sophisticate"? I'm farther South in these United States than you and I'm a country boy myself. I'm truly glad you hug tress, really,
but If you don't get the outrage of being stereotyped by people a lot like you, with a license from GOD to dictate the rules for the rest of us by PROXY along with the added delusion of being in charge of things because of incidental skin color, let me explain why speechlessly confounded turns into outrage when bigoted, selfish individuals feel the need to express anger and fear over having had their fragile sense of superiority challenged by something as simple and historically significant as a Black man being fairly elected to the office of President. So deep seated is the hate and outright fear of loss of control, the vitriolic expression and calls to violent revolution have pushed some of us WAY past the level of patience with ANY attempt at running for the cowardly fallback position of religious license to oppress and using that "down home, countrified regional expressions can be colorful, but it's still free speech," excuse as thin disguises to hide hate and bigotry in lame ass, dated colloquialisms about "Uncle Tom" and "Brer Rabbit".
If my post bothers you, and none of the baited post applies to you,
I can apologize for it's tone as it seems you might actually have a grip on reality that includes the rights and freedoms of others to some degree.
But the "leave us alone" choice to refrain from endorsing the rights of a whole group of Americans, which may even contain members of your own family, can no longer be an acceptable choice. The fact is undeniable that if one group of us is being discriminated against by another, restricting freedoms and denying their rights, then, in ruth, none of us are free, which sets the terrible precedent of a majority rule dictating law.
Would Christians be so quick to press their agenda if they could see a future where Christian ethics no longer apply to the majority of the population and a hopefully unlikely chance of losing the right to express their faith in public? Not if they were smart.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Bageant's article is frivolous; not only is he insulting "rednecks," he's making light of the dire situation of our country which President Obama is doing his best to make better.

Remember, it was George Dumbya Bush who got us into this economic mess with his illegal wars. That's it. The trillions spent on immoral, illegal, pre-emptive irrational wars on countries which did not attack us is the single most guiding force which has caused Americans to lose their jobs, their homes, and companies which hired them to bankrupt.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Well, golly shucks Joe, say it ain't so? (wink) When was you a newspaperman (wink) back in the 50s? You wasn't one a them wearin' white shirts and ties liberal, Marxist, thinkin' folks was you? Them socialist thinkin' folks was a running newspapers in them days before W showed us how to liberate them Iraqis and Dick done showed us how to avoid military service five times cause he had more important things to do than serve in the military.

If you was workin'for them Marxist publisher folks, then all I can say is, "Golly, that job musta stank."
Was you a workin' for Faux News or for them good ol' liberal boys down at the Rev. Moon's Washington Times or maybe for that down home Rupert Murdoch fella at the Wall Street Journal? Theyz all sure common folk.

I spent 20 years, 1981-2001, a workin' for newspapers as one of them news reportin' fellas. Them papers was a couple of what Faux News calls MSM major dailies. I only owned me one white shirt and a two ties, one even had gravy on it. In fact, I had to get outa that bidness cause I only owned a them two ties and that one white, socialist shirt. Now I'z in something a called tachicnal writin'. And now because of that damn, tall, kellered, fella my wife and I get a little more money in our paychecks.

Life changes, Buddy. Newspaper folk might have been liberals at the Buford Justice Times, but the right wing has been playing this song for way too long. It's a really weak argument there, Joe.

The reportin' folks I worked with at an actual newspaper, well, some of us leaned politically to the left, while others leaned to the right, and still others leaned to the center. However, some actually leaned to the too weird to even be categorized political arena. The weird leaning folks ones tended to be the best people to work with and were, for some reason,the best reporters. They also were the best people to hang out with after work.A couple of us were actually from south of the Mason Dixon Line.
Almost everyone who publishes(d) a major daily newspaper aligns with that bastion of liberalism and awful-beer product-brewing Coors family or the Scaifes, Buckleys, Moons, etc. As Sarah Palin might say liberal newspaper publishers just ain't there so say it ain't, so, there Joe. It's just a lame-ass, worn-out, tired and old argument.
And most newspapers, left, right, MOR, Marxist socialist, weekly, monthly, etc. are failing and close to death, but it has nothing to do with political ideology. Even that bastion of freedom of speech, Rupert Murdoch, (one page of daily "sports" now, quotes intended, as
in WSJ Editorial Page style) is a killin' himself in the newspaper business. Bad business plans and free Internet, not political ideology or philosophy are the death gong for newspapers. Most of them good 'ol boys who publish a newspaper tend to tilt slightly if not all the way to the right. I know because them left-wingers used to sign my smaller paycheck. You and me, us smart Southern folks,saw the end of newspaper business and knew to move on to other things and better careers. But to throw this left-wing, MSM newspaper stuff to the wall is just batshit.

Thousand year Reich for the Bushes! Liz Cheney rocks! The liberal media is the problem. Where's my chew?
White neck

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

DEMOCRAT PARTY NAMED MARXIST (by Russian)

American capitalism gone with a whimper
27.04.2009 Source: Pravda.Ru

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger or a Burger King burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our “democracy”. Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the “winning” side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

CRAWFISH NOTE: This post is for ALL those who say year after year that democrats have the right idea…this is from Russia…they know Marxism…there is no argument, no smearing of them, no denial, no spin, no bias, no name-calling, no Republican blame…the experts have now fingered the Democrat Party (Obama-Reid-Pelosi) as Marxists
…not liberals, not progressives, not any other silly term…but MARXISTS. They should be called what they are daily and dealt with accordingly.

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

OBAMA ON BBC:

But he (Obama) stressed: “Democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion — those are not simply principles of the West to be hoisted on these countries, but rather what I believe to be universal principles that they can embrace and affirm as part of their national identity.”

Obama said he would be “encouraging” countries on his trip to promote these values, but added: “I think the thing that we can do most importantly is serve as a good role model.

CRAWFISH NOTE: Now explain to us dim Americans just how you (Obama) have promoted these values.

By protecting ACORN-Black Panther thugs in the voting-intimidation corruption?

By opposing any voter ID?

By making Czars on his own when we have Congress and gov-meant departments?

By not sealing our borders?

By taking over banks and companies while claiming you are not?

By having stooges plot to destroy talk radio that challenges your secular socialist practices?

By opposing religious freedom by private hospitals to refuse stopping heartbeats in the womb?

Tell us all how you are “embracing and affirming” these principles. We are still waiting. Still waiting.

As the suckers applaud the lying Dufus continues on and on with “newspeak”.

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]